F3 Test for Tyrrell at Goodwood
At Goodwood in 1963 Jackie Stewart had his first experience of driving a single-seater racing car. Despite Ken Tyrrell’s Formula 3 Cooper being an alien environment to him, Stewart quickly adapted to the new machine. His performance that day was nothing short of miraculous. Stewart recorded a lap time faster than regular Cooper driver Bruce McLaren, who was at that time the youngest ever driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix . As Ken Tyrrell related in an interview years later, “You’d have to be an idiot not to recognise the talent.”
Tyrrell signed Stewart and so began one of the most successful and enduring relationships in motor racing history. The partnership’s first major win came at the 1964 Monaco Formula 3 race, a support race for the Formula 1 event. Stewart won comfortably and, the following night found himself dining at the same table as Princess Grace and Prince Rainier. In the years to come Monaco would remain a happy hunting ground for Stewart.
F1 with BRM and Graham Hill
Watching that Monaco race was BRM Formula 1 team manager Tony Rudd. Stewart was signed to the team for 1965, partnering Graham Hill. Despite Hill’s considerable experience, which included winning the 1962 World Championship, Stewart was soon competing on equal terms with his team-mate. The Scot’s first Formula 1 victory came in the Daily Express International Trophy, a non-championship event. Later in the year he fought a spirited duel with Hill at Monza, eventually emerging victorious to score his first World Championship Grand Prix win.
Jackie Stewart's 1966 Spa Crash
Staying at BRM for 1966, Stewart was again a force to be reckoned with. At Spa, however, an event occurred which was to change his whole outlook on racing. In wet conditions Stewart’s BRM plunged off the track and wrapped itself around a stone barn. Shortly after the accident Stewart’s team-mate Hill left the track near the same spot, with less serious consequences. It was Hill who noticed Stewart trapped in his car and went to his aid. With the help of some tools acquired from a spectator’s car Stewart was eventually freed. From there he was transported to hospital, albeit only after the police escort had lost its way and the ambulance had lost the police escort.
While recuperating, Stewart had plenty of time to think about the accident and the woeful safety provisions that were in place. It was the Spa incident which led him to become the sport’s most outspoken individual on safety. In a vastly different age from today’s ultra professional organisation, Stewart’s campaign for improvements was not always popular, even among his fellow drivers.
Formula 1 World Champion with Tyrrell and Matra.
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